First of all Hello!
My name is Chamelle, I live in Springfield, Oregon, in the beautiful Willamette Valley. I am raising chickens for the first time, and these forums have been SO amazingly helpful. I am constantly impressed with everyones willingness to share their opinions, expertise and support.
I have 33 2 wk old chicks. I am brooding 19 for my mom, and will keep 14. I'm in town, and 12 is my limit... so I thought 14 sounded perfect! hehe.
They started out in a 35 gal rubbermaid tote, and now are in what i WAS calling chick palace, cuz it seemed so huge. DH made me a great big brooder (i thought at the time) with a removable wire top that can go outside for some tractor action. They're growing so fast that something else will have to be done before they're ready to go outside.
My problem is this. One of my chicks is naughty. She even LOOKS naughty! She's an adorable little (supposedly) araucana. She's been a pecker though, from day 1.
((My two year old niece has an alter-ego that lives at her house named DeeDee. DeeDee hits people and doesn't say sorry. DeeDee gets out of time-out before her time is up. DeeDee makes messes and DeeDee screams when she's mad. You get the idea. Darling Niece also names everything (dolls, stuffies, ect 'DeeDee') so when she got to name a chick, guess what she called her? Yep... poor baby was doomed to be a DeeDee. ))
Anyway, long story short ( I will just go on and on and on about things!)
DeeDee is in chick jail. She just won't stop pecking. Yesterday I ended up with 6 chicks with bloody spot on their tail or shoulders/wings. Man that happens fast! DH and I isolated the hurt chicks and ran to get some pick-no-more stuff, and when we got back two more chicks were bloody and one of them was just AWFUL!
Anyway, we weren't positive that DeeDee was the culprit, we never saw her drawing blood but made her a jail out of wire in the main brooder and ALLL was calm. (Well, eventually when she finally quit yelling her head off.) We suspected that she was the one initially starting the bad spot, then all the other chicks were attacking the red. We have been using a white light during the day, and a red light at night. (now just the red)
Last night all was mello and dark so I let deedee out, thinking it was bedtime, she'd snug up with the others and go to sleep. Nope... she made her rounds, pecking and pecking. It just kills me to see some of those babies standing there just letting her peck and peck at them. Back in to jail with her. No new spots on anyone. The ones with teh pick-no-more on the raw spots are healing and doing great.
Now what?
Here's what I have considered:
1 culling (absolute last resort)
2) Keeping her isolated--any advice as to how long before I try to let her back with the others? Since they can all see and hear each other, will there be re-introduction problems? Only real problem with this is that her jail is taking up valuable brooder space.
3) Trimming her beak - can I do it just so that it's not sharp, but not so much that it will effect her ability to forage/eat/drink ect? Since she's so little, can I expect it to grow back?
4) Trying her in the smaller brooder (35 gal tote) with some of the black chickens. None of the dark chicks got pecked (barred rocks, australorps)
5) Putting the lighter, more passive chicks in the other brooder.
Just occurred to me that options 4 & 5 might cause problems with merging the two groups later. Hmmph.
6) Telling my mom that DeeDee is actually hers, and come and get her 19 chicks and brood them herself. (NOW who's being naughty? hehe)
Any advice? Thanks in advance!
Cham
My name is Chamelle, I live in Springfield, Oregon, in the beautiful Willamette Valley. I am raising chickens for the first time, and these forums have been SO amazingly helpful. I am constantly impressed with everyones willingness to share their opinions, expertise and support.
I have 33 2 wk old chicks. I am brooding 19 for my mom, and will keep 14. I'm in town, and 12 is my limit... so I thought 14 sounded perfect! hehe.
They started out in a 35 gal rubbermaid tote, and now are in what i WAS calling chick palace, cuz it seemed so huge. DH made me a great big brooder (i thought at the time) with a removable wire top that can go outside for some tractor action. They're growing so fast that something else will have to be done before they're ready to go outside.
My problem is this. One of my chicks is naughty. She even LOOKS naughty! She's an adorable little (supposedly) araucana. She's been a pecker though, from day 1.
((My two year old niece has an alter-ego that lives at her house named DeeDee. DeeDee hits people and doesn't say sorry. DeeDee gets out of time-out before her time is up. DeeDee makes messes and DeeDee screams when she's mad. You get the idea. Darling Niece also names everything (dolls, stuffies, ect 'DeeDee') so when she got to name a chick, guess what she called her? Yep... poor baby was doomed to be a DeeDee. ))
Anyway, long story short ( I will just go on and on and on about things!)
DeeDee is in chick jail. She just won't stop pecking. Yesterday I ended up with 6 chicks with bloody spot on their tail or shoulders/wings. Man that happens fast! DH and I isolated the hurt chicks and ran to get some pick-no-more stuff, and when we got back two more chicks were bloody and one of them was just AWFUL!
Anyway, we weren't positive that DeeDee was the culprit, we never saw her drawing blood but made her a jail out of wire in the main brooder and ALLL was calm. (Well, eventually when she finally quit yelling her head off.) We suspected that she was the one initially starting the bad spot, then all the other chicks were attacking the red. We have been using a white light during the day, and a red light at night. (now just the red)
Last night all was mello and dark so I let deedee out, thinking it was bedtime, she'd snug up with the others and go to sleep. Nope... she made her rounds, pecking and pecking. It just kills me to see some of those babies standing there just letting her peck and peck at them. Back in to jail with her. No new spots on anyone. The ones with teh pick-no-more on the raw spots are healing and doing great.
Now what?
Here's what I have considered:
1 culling (absolute last resort)
2) Keeping her isolated--any advice as to how long before I try to let her back with the others? Since they can all see and hear each other, will there be re-introduction problems? Only real problem with this is that her jail is taking up valuable brooder space.
3) Trimming her beak - can I do it just so that it's not sharp, but not so much that it will effect her ability to forage/eat/drink ect? Since she's so little, can I expect it to grow back?
4) Trying her in the smaller brooder (35 gal tote) with some of the black chickens. None of the dark chicks got pecked (barred rocks, australorps)
5) Putting the lighter, more passive chicks in the other brooder.
Just occurred to me that options 4 & 5 might cause problems with merging the two groups later. Hmmph.
6) Telling my mom that DeeDee is actually hers, and come and get her 19 chicks and brood them herself. (NOW who's being naughty? hehe)
Any advice? Thanks in advance!
Cham